All-American Rejects humbled by success

John J. Moser, OF THE MORNING CALL

The All-American Rejects had the most-played song in all of 2009 with its hit "Gives You Hell," according to Billboard magazine. And with the album that spawned the song, "When The World Comes Down," heading toward platinum, the band is quickly nearing 4 million copies sold for its three albums.

But don't expect the pop- punk band from Stillwater, Okla., to have an inflated sense of self over its success.

"Coming up in Oklahoma, there's like humbleness ingrained into you and I don't think we could [avoid that]," Rejects' guitarist Mike Kennerty says in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles. "We would get too much [flak] from all our family and friends if we ever let any of this go to our heads."

It's that attitude that led The All-American Rejects to perform at this year's Vans Warped Tour, the summer festival that typically features breaking or underground bands.

The tour, which features 73 bands, including hot emo singer NeverShoutNever and pop-punkers The Rocket Summer, will makes stops Thursday at Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton and Friday at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J.

After playing Warped in 2003 and 2005 to promote its first two discs, which produced the hits "Swing Swing" "and "Dirty Little Secret," the Rejects were scheduled to headline the show in 2008, but backed out when the recording of "When The World Comes Down" ran too late, Kennerty says.

Then last year, the band was tapped to open for blink-182's reunion tour and couldn't join Warped, now in its 16th year.

"We felt bad ever since," Kennerty says, laughing. "And so like, 'All right, this is the year we're going to do it again. We're free.' We've always had fun; we've always had a blast on it. It's a great time."

"It's pretty mind-blowing," Kennerty says. "But honestly, when we're just in the midst of it, it's tough to really get perspective on it. I don't know, we just kind of do what feels right."

Being "in the midst of it" includes playing at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and at an after-party at the Super Bowl. It also means receiving the new pop coronation of having a song — in the band's case "Gives You Hell" — sung by cast members on the massively popular FOX-TV show "Glee."

Kennerty says the "Glee" exposure "was particularly insane."

"I was just at home and I heard news it was coming on, so I DVR'd it. And then when I watched it, it was … just a weird moment. A year and a half ago, I was working on that song and, like, know exactly the gestation and where it came from. And to seeing this huge TV show do their interpretation of it, it was very bizarre but awesome."

He says the Olympics show was "pretty cool" because it "was such a mix of demographics from around the world all together."

Despite its success, the band isn't content to rest on its laurels. After taking nearly 3 1/2 years on "When The World Comes Down," the Rejects are working on a follow-up, which they hope to release by the beginning of next year.

"We're starting to get the songs together right now and we're going to try to continue while we're on Warped," he says. "And then, hopefully, right afterward go and hit the studio and start putting some stuff down.

Asked how the new songs sound, Kennerty says the band never sets out to produce a certain sound.

"Each of our records … there's always just this sort of little bit of evolution that just happens from becoming a couple years older and not really caring what comes out – just writing what comes out," he says. "And so there's things already that I think are going to make it unique from the other albums, but still us very much."

Speaking of aging, Kennerty is reminded he turns 30 this year, and Gaylor's already hit the bench mark. He says aging hasn't changed the band's outlook.

"But in an environment like Warped Tour, it's going to be really interesting," he says, "When we first did that tour, we were the new, young kids. And it can be a very clique-y tour in a way – you go to sit down at catering and there's just these groups of people and you can definitely tell the veterans and all this stuff.

"It's really weird – looking at the lineup this year, all the big bands are like our friends. And we're going to be those band this time," he says, laughing. "And there's going to be all these young kids that are probably like, 'Oh, all those big bands just hang out together. They don't hang out with anyone else.'

"It's not that," he says, laughing again. "We grew up with these other bands, too. It's a funny thing to now be the old guys on the tour."